The Library of Congress announced its selections for the 2009 National Recording Registry. Selections must be at least 10 years old and be culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. The Library of Congress will ensure that these recordings are always available to the American public. The selections for the 2009 registry bring the total number of recordings to 300.
Among the selections are Tupac Shakur's "Dear Mama;" Loretta Lynn’s "Coal Miner’s Daughter;" Bill Cosby’s album, "I Started Out As a Child;" Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti;" R.E.M.'s "Radio Free Europe;" and the Marine Corps Combat Field Recording Collection of the second battle of Guam, which documents rare battle sounds and personal accounts by troops before, during and after the battle.
What do you think of the selections? Are you surprised by any of the inclusions? Share your comments with us.
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Cisco Claims to Forever Change the Internet
Cisco announced today that their next generation router will have tremendous download speed. This would allow the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second. Curious to know more?
[Via Yahoo Finances]
[Via Yahoo Finances]
United Nations Opens World Digital Library
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and several national libraries have launched the World Digital Library, a website that allows visitors to browse through some of humanity’s earliest written works online.
The site, four years in the making and in seven languages (English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian), provides page-by-page viewing of the original works, scanned in by the national libraries that took part in the project, often with multilingual narration by curators.
Included is a manuscript from ancient Japan that is believed to be the first novel ever; a 1562 map of the New World; the only known copy of the first book published in the Philippines, in Spanish and Tagalog; an 11th-century Serbian manuscript; and the oracle bones — pieces of bone or tortoise shell heated and cracked and inscribed that are among the earliest known signs of Chinese writings.
James H. Billington, the U.S. Librarian of Congress, who heads the project, says the project is ready to expand as other national libraries join in with the 32 libraries and research institutions already involved.
[via Yahoo Tech]
The site, four years in the making and in seven languages (English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian), provides page-by-page viewing of the original works, scanned in by the national libraries that took part in the project, often with multilingual narration by curators.
Included is a manuscript from ancient Japan that is believed to be the first novel ever; a 1562 map of the New World; the only known copy of the first book published in the Philippines, in Spanish and Tagalog; an 11th-century Serbian manuscript; and the oracle bones — pieces of bone or tortoise shell heated and cracked and inscribed that are among the earliest known signs of Chinese writings.
James H. Billington, the U.S. Librarian of Congress, who heads the project, says the project is ready to expand as other national libraries join in with the 32 libraries and research institutions already involved.
[via Yahoo Tech]
Library of Congress Shares More Videos Online
One of my favorite things about the Internet is the wealth of cultural information online, to which I would never have access. The website of the Museum of Modern Art, for instance. Or the archives of the National Film Board of Canada.
More good news. The Library of Congress will begin sharing content from its video and audio collections on YouTube and Apple’s iTunes as part of a continuing effort to make its collection available to broad segments of the population.
Among the content expected to be shared include 100-year-old films from the Thomas Edison studio, book talks with contemporary authors, early industrial films from Westinghouse factories, first-person audio accounts of life in slavery, and inside looks into the Library's holdings, including the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and the contents of Lincoln's pockets on the night of his assassination.
The new channels will launch within the next few weeks.
[via iLibrarian]
More good news. The Library of Congress will begin sharing content from its video and audio collections on YouTube and Apple’s iTunes as part of a continuing effort to make its collection available to broad segments of the population.
Among the content expected to be shared include 100-year-old films from the Thomas Edison studio, book talks with contemporary authors, early industrial films from Westinghouse factories, first-person audio accounts of life in slavery, and inside looks into the Library's holdings, including the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and the contents of Lincoln's pockets on the night of his assassination.
The new channels will launch within the next few weeks.
[via iLibrarian]
Library of Congress Flickr Project A Success
This from Jessamyn West, via librarian.net:
"The Library of Congress has finished a report (full report and shorter summary in pdf) summing up what they’ve learned after the first nine months of their experimentation with Flickr. Here is an excerpt from the summary. Look at these numbers.
Not only is that data good news about the project but being able to say “Hey when the Library of Congress opened up their photos to commenting and tagging, they only had to remove 25 inappropriate tags/comments out of 75K instances of user-generated content” thats a big deal."
"The Library of Congress has finished a report (full report and shorter summary in pdf) summing up what they’ve learned after the first nine months of their experimentation with Flickr. Here is an excerpt from the summary. Look at these numbers.
The following statistics attest to the popularity and impact of the pilot. As of October 23, 2008, there have been:Between January and May 2008, the Library saw an increase in hits at its own Web site. For Bain images placed on Flickr, views/downloads rose approximately 60% for the period January-May 2008, compared to the same time period in 2007. Views/downloads of FSA/OWI image files placed on Flickr rose approximately 13%. Average monthly visits to all PPOC Web pages rose 20% over the five-month period of January-May 2008, compared to the same period in 2007. For additional information, see the Outcomes section in the full report.
- 10.4 million views of the photos on Flickr.
- 79% of the 4,615 photos have been made a “favorite” (i.e., are incorporated into personal Flickr collections).
- More than 15,000 Flickr members have chosen to make the Library of Congress a “contact,” creating a photostream of Library images on their own accounts.
- 7,166 comments were left on 2,873 photos by 2,562 unique Flickr accounts.
- 67,176 tags were added by 2,518 unique Flickr accounts.
- 4,548 of the 4,615 photos have at least one community-provided tag.
- Less than 25 instances of user-generated content were removed as inappropriate.
- More than 500 Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) records have been enhanced with new information provided by the Flickr Community.
Not only is that data good news about the project but being able to say “Hey when the Library of Congress opened up their photos to commenting and tagging, they only had to remove 25 inappropriate tags/comments out of 75K instances of user-generated content” thats a big deal."
A Great Website for Kids
The Library of Congress website is packed with fascinating and useful resources about science, American History, music, theater, dance and more. Did you ever wonder why a camel has a hump or why our joints make popping sounds? Click here, play around, learn something.
